Don't forget the Rockets will do the rest philosophy this season. I don't expect 82 games between CP3, Harden and Melo.
We'll leave the optimization to Mike. I just want to see him run a deeper rotation. Much like I want to see James off ball. These two things both have struggled with.
Haha I was actually asking the question, what did he look like with Russell Westbrook? I remember him running the show as the 6th man but I can't remember what the offense was like with Westbrook commanding the ball and Harden also on the court.
I'm hoping for many "boring" wins this upcoming season where both can rest most/the entire 4th quarter. Keep em superfresh for the playoffs.
1) CP3....................2) Isaiah Taylor 3) Harden...............4) E Gordon 5) Ariza...................6) Tucker / 7) Troy Williams 8) ???.....................9) Luc Mhab a Moute/ 10) C Oliver/ 11) Zhou Qi 12) Capela.............13)Nene / 14) TBlack / 15) Chinanu 16) Shawn Long 17) Quarterman ??? Will it be Ryan Anderson or Melo? Could the Rockets be prepping for a Ryan Anderson move for Melo? According to Paul Garcia NBA...Houston needs to shed some contract(s) to get to 15 roster spots (add M a Moute) I would like to see the final roster first. AmicoHoops wrote Houston may be prepping to move Ariza for Melo. I don't think Ariza who recruited CP3 is leaving. "What if": Ryno/Gordon/Long/Quarterman for Melo/Courtney Lee? Houston may be asked to take that Courtney Lee contract. Take it for the league. Then Houston signs Trey Burke & Mo Speights CP3.............Trey Burke / Isaiah Taylor Harden........Courtney Lee / (Tucker) Ariza............Tucker / (Mhab a Moute) Melo............Speights / Mhab a Moute / Qi / Oliver Capela.........Nene / T Black / (Speights) Blue highlighted names signify multi-position player depth. Watch for it tomorrow. Lol Edited: Zhou Qi.....maybe no room for Speights
I believe that this is ideal but for completely different reasons than those of Portland for doing so. In the case of Houston, I believe that we should do it because I don't see Harden as an athletic high energy cutter, and I don't see Paul as one either. They're both extremely crafty, but asking either one to play off the ball isn't really playing to their strengths if you're asking them to primarily be cutters. It's best when their shots are falling. Hopefully later on in the season I'll see that I was wrong, but at this point I think this is what I've seen from Harden and Paul respectively.
Harden was the de facto PG. The Nick Collison & Harden p&r against Dallas in 2012 literally left everyone thinking this guy is all Star material. Maybe not MVP, but at least all star. He was the guy running point but not the top option.
You sir, do not get it. 16-18 minutes of rest is needed for chris paul, minimum. Harden must be on the court for those 16-18 minutes, and he needs 14 minutes of rest per game, in which, chris needs to be on the court for those minutes. That means, 30-32 minutes per game, every game, they will not share.
I've always perceived it as Harden trying to get others involved early. It seems the first quarter is generally when he racks up the most assists.
It would be ideal if our regular games are far out of reach by the end of the 3rd quarter that MDA can play the deep end of the bench in the 4th with confidence plus experiment with set plays and combinations.
This is a must with all the max contracts we need production out of some unlikely places to make it all work. Production only happens with playing time. Garbage time = development & a win.
Nah, not seeing it. We have two superstar guards in the hope that them playing together will move us towards being an unstoppable offensive juggernaut. Obviously, there will be times when only one of them is on the court, but I would expect that the Venn diagram of Paul and Harden on the court overlaps enormously. If they get Melo as a shooting finisher, he will also overlap enormously with the other two. I'm hoping that the Rockets have this plan: Somehow......get their Big 3 or Big 2 to create gargantuan, overwhelming offense when on the court. I don't know how that's going to work, but it's got to. Then, when the starters rest, whether staggered or all at once, your bench works to limit the damage from the other team with some offense but mainly hardcore defense. If they're successful, your starters come back and insufferably, mercilessly pile more on. No letting up until the other team relents. I don't see this team as balanced or deep enough to keep a rotation of constant forward-moving offensive pressure. It's a charge, hold, charge, hold, etc, etc. offense. It's basically football. At least that seems the way you'd do it if you're desperately aiming to have three star/superstar players working together at the same time. We'll see.
I like BigMaloe's minutes prediction quite a bit, but think CP3 will average a little bit less than 30 mpg over the season to keep him healthy. This means we'll probably add some fringe PG/SG who will get decent minutes only in blowouts, injury/rest situations, or when he's playing well. This is a team that should win a lot of games therefore the minutes will get kept down.